CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - Apr 3, 2014) - Vibes, a mobile marketing technology leader, today released a report presenting the findings of extensive analysis of the most effective mobile marketing strategies. For retailers and brands, growing a robust mobile database can be challenging, particularly following the changes from last October's Telecommunication Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In its "SMS Marketing Handbook: The definitive guide to growing your mobile database in a post-TCPA world," Vibes highlights the most successful and tangible ways marketers can grow their SMS database.

In addition to the analysis-driven handbook, Vibes is launching its Mobile Acquisition Calculator, a free online tool that shows marketers the most effective ways to accelerate growth of their SMS mobile database.

The ResearchDuring the past six months, Vibes has been collecting and analyzing data from hundreds of customer campaigns; the result is a new metric, APM (Acquisitions per Thousand Impressions), which identifies the number of people who will opt-in to join your mobile database for every 1,000 marketing impressions you deliver. This new metric is behind Vibes' Mobile Acquisition Calculator, which helps marketers identify the APM for their own business.

Armed with these tools and research from Vibes, marketers will now be able to build a validated SMS acquisition plan and answer the one question that matters: how to most cost-effectively acquire new mobile subscribers.

"SMS has always offered a unique and personalized opportunity to reach consumers," said Alex Campbell, co-founder and chief innovation officer, Vibes. "With the changing landscape, it's more important than ever for marketers to have the tools that will help them double down their efforts -- whether it's starting a new program entirely or re-building one that was impacted by TCPA. Our mobile acquisition kit is designed to help marketers strategically investigate how different channels perform, and ultimately, build a strong and successful mobile database."

Key FindingsIn addition to identifying best practices for acquiring a loyal mobile subscriber, Vibes' research has uncovered the following insight:

1. Average APM is 1.3 people. For every 1,000 impressions delivered across all marketing channels, an average of 1.3 people join a mobile database.

2. Email offers the greatest return when marketers take aggressive measures with an APM of 10.5 vs. an average of 1.6. Social came in second with a double down impact of a 2.9 APM vs. an average of .7.

3. Social media has the lowest APM. In-store and email came in first and second, respectively (before TV, website and lastly, social media).

4. In-store promotion has great potential. And it is not used enough. Highly engaged shoppers are already predisposed to engage with your brand through multiple channels, especially mobile.

5. Incentives/sweepstakes are significant. Those who used a thank-you incentive or sweepstakes as part of their acquisition program saw six times more subscribers using one tactic and eight times using both.

About Vibes Founded in 1998, Vibes is a mobile marketing technology leader that helps some of the world's biggest brands acquire, engage and deepen relationships throughout the customer lifecycle. Vibes' Catapult Mobile Relationship Management (MRM) platform enables marketers to drive revenue growth and loyalty through mobile messaging, mobile wallet marketing leveraging Apple's Passbook and Google Wallet, post-click engagement, and advanced segmentation, targeting and personalization. Vibes has delivered more than 4 billion mobile experiences on behalf of customers that include Sears, Home Depot, Verizon, Allstate, The Gap, Tribune, Fox, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Gannett and the Chicago Bulls. The Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) recognizes Vibes as one of only six Tier 1 aggregators with secure, direct connections to all the major carriers. To learn more about Vibes, visit www.vibes.com or connect on Facebook.com/VibesMedia or Twitter.com/Vibes.